The back-up plan is in case regulators find issues with lithium batteries after the 787 troubles

In the wake of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner issues, Airbus said it's prepared to redesign or utilize alternatives to its A350 lithium-ion jet batteries.

Airbus expects to use lithium-ion batteries much like those used in the 787 Dreamliner, but with recent battery fires occurring in the 787 jets, Airbus is ready to make any necessary changes that authorities may require.

Airbus has addressed that fires could be a potential threat when using lithium-ion batteries, but feels safe with its designs enough to continue with efforts to use them.

"We identified this fragility at the start of development and we think we resolved it about a year ago," said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus CEO. "Nothing prevents us from going back to a classical plan that we have been studying in parallel.

"We have a robust design. If this design has to evolve, we have the time to do that. If it has to change in a more drastic way because the authorities reach the conclusion that the technology is not mature, then we have all the time we need to do this on the A350 before first delivery in the second half of 2014."

The 787's lack of fire-fighting system has been the subject of inspection over the last week, but Airbus declined to offer any details regarding the A350's fire-fighting system or on the battery's design overall.

Throughout January 2013, 787 Dreamliner jets through Japanese airlines All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) had various issues concerning the lithium-ion batteries. The 787s were grounded in the U.S., Japan and India while an investigation began.

I agree 1000%, I've been saying that same thing for a long time. The engineers of old could use their hands and had practical knowledge. Nowadays they only learn the text book but never the lessons. I know we judge people's abilities by marks but I think they should start testing real ability. Engineering degrees are handout nowadays, I know I have one. But I can tell you is what I learned in school was good but I never really learned what I thought I would. I learned more in the first 2 years of real work then my who,e time @ university. It's sad but true,

I see this in the IT engineering field a lot too. So many people with "certifications", and degrees, but no practical experience. When they run into trouble they have no idea what to do. They can ace the tests and all that, but they fail to comprehend the fundamentals or ave the ability to apply their knowledge to real world situations.

This problem is wide spread across a lot of different professions. I think a lot of it is the pursuit of knowledge has been replaced with wood sharking.